The great Tamil civilization…

This blogger expresses serious concern on the plight of Srilankan tamils caught in the crossfire. It is sad that terrorist group LTTE has become rallying point for some tamilians, as also selfish leaders. It is trivializing Tamils. It is an insult on Tamil culture. It is important to put things in perspective. Tamil is the cradle of Dravidian culture. It is what defines the entire south part of Indian subcontinent. The word Dravida is considered to be distortion of Tamizha. Tamilians are mentioned from 350BC but their roots can be traced much before. There is language in Baluchistan (now Pakistan) that is Dravidian (Brahui) indicating the probability of Indus Valley civilization being Dravidian who were pushed into peninsula by invading Aryans. The highly advanced Indus people are considered as proto-Dravidians or ancestors of Tamils. Tamil is one of the oldest living languages in the world (Malayalam was born out of Tamil during 13^th century). Some time back I saw in TV (I guess it was Discovery) wherein they tried to trace the path of early humans from Africa. The blood sample they tested to get the “x factor” that linked to early human migrations was found in a Tamilian.

Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest works found show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Tamil history is split into three periods; prehistoric, classical (Sangam period) and medieval It is the Sangam era that is considered golden period because of its profusion of culture activities. Another significant aspect was that the contribution was from all walks of life, the society was relatively egalitarian. Most works from sangam era is lost (Tolkappiyam is earliest and significant work on grammar that survived). It need also be noted that the tamilians of sangam era were very much influenced by early Buddhism (Kalabhras) and Jainism.

The best known and respected poet from this period is saint Thiruvalluvar (the statue at Kanyakumari), his book Thirukkural is very popular, and is quoted quite often. The book is a comprehensive manual on ethics, polity and love. Cilappatikaram (by Ilango Adigal) is an outstanding work of literature from this period.

By the medieval period, the Tamilians (Chola kingdom) had established a powerful empire that stretched from the Maldives through much of South East Asia, encompassing the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Thailand and Myanmar. This was also the period of prosperity and spectacular temples were build, the unique Dravidian temple structure and sculpture, art evolved during this period. This blog is not enough and will definitely not be able to encompass the achievements of tamilians during this period, it was height of Tamil creative genius (as also earlier contributions of Pallavas and Pandyas).

One of the great Tamil poets of freedom struggle was Subramanya Bharathi, his works are still very popular for their progressive themes (I recall being taught songs from different languages in school during singing classes that was meant for national integration and Bharathi’s odi vilayadu papaa was quite popular).

These lines from Thirrukural (Thiruvalluvar) “What pleasure it is to human beings everywhere when their children possess knowledge surpassing their own!”. So what has LTTE done to the Tamil children in Sri Lanka in last many decades except teaching hate and training them to kill? There is a lost generation growing up…

Post script: I found these lines by Subramanya Bharathi that I thought was incredible."He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry - it is he who is a poet.".